IC cards, which are often memory cards, are commonly constructed with a molded plastic frame having opposite sides and ends, a combination circuit board and front connector installed on the frame, and top and bottom metallic covers. Such IC cards are especially useful in electronic apparatus of very small thickness, such as lap top computers of the size of a sheet of paper and with a thickness of much less than one inch. Standard JEIDA IC cards have a thickness of 5 millimeters, which enables them to be inserted into thin slots of the electronic apparatus.
The usefulness of the memory cards can be enhanced by providing a rear input/output port, and a cable harness that can connect to the port. It is highly desirable to provide heavy duty grounding contacts on the cable harness and card, which can discharge large amounts of static electricity before signal contacts are engaged. Because of the small thickness of the card and the even smaller thickness of cable connector parts that must plug into the rear of the card, it is difficult to provide room for accommodating the separate grounding contacts. An IC card and a cable harness connectable to the input/output port of the card, which could be reliably constructed to small thicknesses, would be of considerable value.